Alcohol Addiction Can Be Treated But You Need Strong Will Power

Alcoholism or alcohol addiction usually begins with just a drink for social reasons.

Then you start finding excuses or occasions to have a drink, such as:

• celebrating an event - getting a promotion, passing an exam, winning a competition, etc


• drowning your sorrows - bereavement, losing a job, having relationship problems, etc


• helping you to overcome a health problem - insomnia, stress or depression

There are basically 4 stages leading up to alcohol addiction:

• social drinking - meeting up with friends for a chat and a laugh. This will usually involve a small amount of drinking.


• heavy drinking - exceeding the recommended 'safe' levels which, for men is under 21 units of alcohol a week, and for women is under 14 units of alcohol per week.


• problem drinking is when you continue drinking excessively beyond the recommended 'safe' limits causing health problems to yourself. As a result of spending more money than you can afford on alcohol, you may not have enough money for other household expenditure like food for the family.


• alcohol addiction, where you have to drink every day and are unable to give up alcohol without withdrawal symptoms.

The effects of alcohol

A recent study revealed the UK had soaring liver disease cirrhosis death rates because of excessive alcohol consumption, while drinking costs the NHS nearly £3bn a year and the economy much more in lost working days and alcohol fuelled crime.

The effects of alcohol can include:

• low mood and feeling depressed.


• although alcohol can help you to get to sleep quickly, it can also disrupt your sleep pattern and prevent you from sleeping soundly.


• affect your judgement and behaviour - sometimes aggressive and irrational behaviour.


• depression, memory loss, brain damage or dementia.


• you are likely to have high blood pressure as drinking can affect your heart and blood vessels.


• increased risk of heart disease and stroke


• cancer - cancer of the mouth, throat cancer, cancer of the oesophagus or larynx and breast cancer in women.


• liver damage, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.


• stomach damage.


• Can affect your immune system and heavy drinkers tend to catch more infectious diseases.

Alcohol Treatment

• The first step is to accept that you have an alcohol addiction problem. By accepting that you have a problem, you'll be willing to seek alcohol treatment.


• Visit self-help groups, such as Alcoholic Anonymous, which has over 3,000 groups in the UK. Talking to people face-to-face, especially with other members having similar problems, is the best way of dealing with the problem.


• Counselling by a specially trained counsellor can help you to talk through your problems in greater detail. This will help the counsellor to work out a plan to help you to manage your drinking problem.


• Alternative therapy such as hypnotherapy will help you overcome your alcohol addiction.


• Alcohol detoxification helps to reduce withdrawal symptoms when you give up alcohol. In the alcohol detoxification process, your doctor will prescribe a detox medication to help you deal with the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms but you must agree not to drink any alcohol during the alcohol detoxification period.


• Visit an alcohol rehabilitation centre once you are off alcohol. This can take several months and varies from groups sessions to intensive counselling known as cognitive behavioural therapy.

In order to recover from alcohol addiction it is very important to have the support of colleagues, of families, spouse, and children. You need all the support and encouragement you can get to overcome alcoholism. However, the sucess or failure of the alcohol treatment depends entirely on you own will power.

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